What I’m Into October 2015

Another month, another What I’m Into post. Once again, I’m linking up with Leigh Kramer.

Reading

I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d hoped this month, but I did get started on Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows (so excited she decided to revisit the Grisha universe) and loved Cara Nicoletti’s Voracious. Recipes and meditations on great books? Take my money, please!

Watching

Jane the Virgin is back! I am so excited it’s not even funny. I’m also still following Once Upon a Time, Modern Family, Downton Abbey, Big Bang Theory, and The Mindy Project (and, thus far, less annoyed with the Mindy as a mom arc than I thought I’d be). I also watched Melissa McCarthy’s Spy on the plane and, while it was a bit much at times (I miss Sookie, the best character MC ever played), I just about died of laughter when British spy douche takes off in a huff on a sea-doo, not realizing he’s on a lake, not the ocean.

Listening

All Hamilton, all the time. It’s bad, guys. I have about 90% of the soundtrack down word perfect. Yesterday, I hit a new low and didn’t even turn the soundtrack on. I just sang it to myself. My husband, bless him, has been very longsuffering through this. All this to say, you should listen to the Hamilton soundtrack because it is amazing, but also be warned that it will take over your life.

Eating

I spent nearly a week in Vancouver’s West Side, so I got to check out some of its culinary offerings while I was there, My favourites were the Breka Bakery on Davie/Hornby (the most amazing panini selection, plus a to die for slice of cake with pistachio cream and chocolate ganache), the Banana Leaf on Davie (a Malaysian eatery, which was a whole new type of cuisine for me), Pizzeria Ludica (a board game cafe and Neapolitan Pizzeria, which is basically all my favourite things in one place), and the Patron Cantina, a fabulous Mexican place on Robson. In my own kitchen, my favourite thing I made all month was this gorgeous Pear, Chocolate, and Cardamom cake (which does take considerably longer to bake than the recipe calls for, but is amazing). I also tried this Spiced Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce for Thanksgiving, and I think it may be my new go-to. As usual, you can find all my favourite recipes of the month on my monthly What I’m Into Pinterest board.

Games

I got to try Colt Express (the 2015 Spiel des Jahres) for the first time this month and really enjoyed it–I love that it’s genuinely a different mechanism than every other board game we own. I also got to try the card game Guillotine (which I enjoyed, but will need to play a few more times to really get a feel for it). Aaron and I also got really into Fluxx: The Card Game (which I can report is also a big hit with the Mosses over in Vancouver). The basic gist of Fluxx is that players can constantly play cards that change the rules or the win condition for the game, which makes things really unpredictable but really fun. It’ll definitely be one of the games we bring home at Christmas.

IRL

As I mentioned, I was in Vancouver this month (my first time on the West Coast), which was super exciting. I went for my field’s major annual conference, and it was a great experience. I got to see some really great panels and managed not to shame myself or my supervisor when giving my own paper, so I’d say it was a success. I also got to see some friends who had moved to Vancouver and spend time with family who live in the area. We also hosted a last-minute Thanksgiving dinner earlier in the month, which was good fun and surprisingly not too difficult to pull off even though I only decided to do it like 3 days ahead of time. We’re hosting friends again tomorrow, this time for a Halloween board game party, so I’m scrambling to finish cleaning the house and decide what lazy costume hack I want to settle for.

That’s it for me for the month. Be sure to head over to Leigh’s blog to check out some of the other submissions!

I know, Voracious is awesome! Have you tried some of the recipes? I couldn’t believe how good the green pea and leek soup was. We have company coming tomorrow and I’m making the Secret Garden currant buns for lunch.

I should get a notification from the library about Six of Crows any day now. Cannot wait! I’m so intrigued and sometimes confused about the new direction for Once Upon A Time- I want to know what’s going on!